1.1.11-Safe-is-relative
Brick!Club Catch-Up part 1 Ahh! I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long but I am back now! I’ll probably have part 2 up later today along with today’s chapter. 1.1.11 "The first proof of charity in a priest, and especially a bishop, is poverty. That is doubtless the view which the Bishop of Digne took of it." Okay, I get it, the bishop wants to be close to those he’s helping but I feel like this is one of those “put on your own oxygen mask before you help anyone else” instances. If you can’t take care of yourself and the people in your care, then how are you supposed to take care of all of the people in the diocese. "He who has not been a determined accuser during prosperity, ought to hold his peace in the presence of adversity." YES 1.1.12 "Monseigneur Bienvenu, a humble, poor, private person, was not counted among the rich mitres. This was plain from the entire absence of young priests about him… No young ambition was foolish enough to ripen in his shadow." Okay *I don’t like how this chapter portrays ambition. Its not a bad thing to want to better yourself. *I feel like the Bishop is being incredibly short-sighted. If he was to encourage the ambitiousness of the abbes and kept them around him while also teaching them his beliefs, then they could rise higher in the church and thus have more authority and could make some real change. Sometimes you have to use the system to change it. 1.1.13 This wasn’t really a captivating chapter for me but I really liked the imagery of this quote: "His universal tenderness was less an instinct of nature than the result of a strong conviction filtered through life into his heart, slowly dropping in upon him, thought by thought; for a character, as well as a rock, may be worn into by drops of water. Such marks are ineffaceable; such formations are indestructible." 1.1.14 "…without essaying to solve the enigma, he endeavoured to staunch the wound." I feel like this perfectly encapsulates the bishop: he is only staunching the poverty, he isn’t doing anything to actually fix the root problems. 1.2.1 For as relatively long as this chapter is, I have nothing to say about it other than I’m excited to see plot that I recognize. Commentary Sarah1281 I don’t think the chapter is anti-ambition in general, just anti-ambition in priests. The church is supposed to have people serve it because they want to serve it and help others, not because they all dream of living in the bishop’s palace someday. It’s not bad to want to better yourself but I think the point is that these people are getting into it for the wrong reasons. They’re too busy living it up like nobles and enjoying the power and prestige that their position brings that they’re forgetting their mission and not helping the poor. I don’t think that the bishop would be able to draw ambitious young followers if he tried. They are all in it for personal advancement and power. The bishop lives life on the thin edge of poverty because of how much of his money he gives to everyone else. Any disciple of the bishop is going to have to live that way, too, and be convinced to put all the time and effort into becoming a bishop only to live as simply as he can while still staying alive. That’s likely to appeal to no one. The bishop himself has risen very high in the church and yet he seems unable to do more than improve things himself with his own money because no one else in the church is interested in giving up their wealth and power to help all those poor people. I do not think if he did manage to find a successor that they would have better luck.